A South Bucks businessman has gone viral on Twitter for sharing his experiences of multiculturalism in Slough - and has been praised for writing one of the 'best, most thought-provoking posts about the current state of the UK'.
Author Shahid Kamal Ahmad, based in Gerrards Cross, took to the social media platform on Saturday, August 3, as news about racist-fuelled riots spread across the UK.
He wrote: "I went out to Slough today with the family. We were out in the parks and on the streets for hours. Then back home to South Bucks where we stepped out after an hour to get an ice cream from the van.
"After a night of social media reminding me of the hell of my childhood, here's what I have to report. Everyone we met was lovely. Most people smiled.
"All colours, backgrounds, faiths or none, modestly dressed males with beards to young women wearing little bar tattoos. All friendly. All kind. All chatty. Polite kids on their bikes making way for us. Older folks smiling. Almost like they knew.
"The postman, old white guy, for the first time ever, saluted my wife with a cheery smile and touchingly, the Muslim greeting of "salaamalaikum"
"My kids played with all kinds of other kids.
"At the ice cream van, another old white guy was lovely with my kids and he and I struck up a typically British, cheery conversation about the weather.
He continued: "I approach my home at the end of this glorious day of love, peace and harmony amongst all people.
"There's an Amazon delivery being dropped off at my door by a quiet, polite young man. He sports a thawb, sandals and a most magnificent beard. I shout the greeting of salaam to him. He replies with a greeting.
"I read about the anti fascists, who outnumber the thugs by up to an order of magnitude. The thugs? Their grifter god Yaxley Lennon lives it up in Spain on money he took from them. His business? Division. Their slogan? Stop the boats. The same slogan used by Sunak.
"Well. It was your forefathers' boats that once ruled the waves and built the most powerful empire in history. They conquered and looted our ancestors. Our parents, born as British Subjects, came here to rebuild this country doing the lowliest jobs. You're too late to stop the boats. You should have stopped the ones going out.
"You wanted to leave Europe. Well the same [redacted] who gave you your referendum to give you your cherished freedom destroyed Libya, once a bulwark against terrorism and now a failed state helplessly leaking the biggest refugee crisis for decades.
"You've failed. For all your hate, for all your beer, for all your unoriginal, uninspiring taunts, it turns out *you're* the spongers, *you're* the paedos, *you're* the cop-beaters, *you're* the shop-smashers, and you're thick too.
"Your grifter god, the one who works for genocidaires in America and Israel, and your antichrist Coutts reject poundshop-Powell, the proto fascist Nige, are mostly in Spain and America respectively. They don't represent you. They exploit you for cash. They laugh at you.
"You've failed. You've lost. The people in this country will not be turning on each other.
"The mosques have been doing good work for their communities for decades. The communities know this, even if the foreigner owned papers don't. Funny that. You don't care about those foreigners. Or the ones pissing away our water and stealing our money to pay themselves huge bonuses. It's the refugees from the wars our taxes paid for that you can't stand. Because they reflect back to you your ugliest nightmare. Your soul. Your stained, ugly soul, tainted by hate that you got tricked into, because you chose the easy target instead of the actual target.
"This is *our* England now. If you don't like it, you can go back to your own country, Fascistan. It's at the bottom of the English Channel."
His elongated Twitter post was liked 4,400 times at the time the Observer went to press and retweeted by more than 1,200 accounts.
Dozens of people reached out to the businessman in support of his message. Pete Miller said it was "one of the best, most thought-provoking posts about the current state of the UK to date."
Another wrote: "Your post made me cry with pride. You are the best of us, whoever 'we' happen to be. You're a market for humanity."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article